Allied Interstate violating their Merchant Agreement

hmm.. allied interstate is already violating many federal and state laws. Are they charging you on the basis of a collection fee? I am sure you must have read the contract carefully signed with the original creditor.

What happened was, today I received a statement from them regarding a phone bill from about 6 years ago. Some former roommates had left a bill in my name and ran it up to about $200. The letter said they'd accept a settlement of $120 in the next 40 days. I called them today to arrange that and they basically forced us to give them money today, stating that the 40-day offer wasn't actually valid, and that they would report it to the credit bureaus on FRIDAY if I didn't fork over today. They also lied about the date they sent the letter, saying they sent it a month ago, but it was dated 1/12. They told us they'd take the MasterCard payment over the phone, and we gave them the card number. AFTER we gave them the card number, they told us there would be a $9.95 surcharge to use my MasterCard. That's not only illegal, but exhorbitant!

Why is it a violation of their merchant agreement to charge a credit card processing fee? I know many places that charge to do a phone payment. If a place tells me they are going to charge a fee for an electronic payment, I tell them nevermind I will mail a check. If you don't agree to pay the fee, then they should not follow through with the transaction. If they do, then you should dispute the charges with Mastercard since you did not agree to them.

I tend to say that anything you have in writing supercedes any verbal communication. If you have in writing that they will accept $120 within 40 days to settle the account, then they will have a hard time proving "they didn't really mean it."

Also the fact that they said they would report to the bureaus this Friday, is far-fetched. Data furnishers generally use an automated reporting process, in which they generate a tape file of all their accounts and electronically submit them to the bureaus once a month (usually on the last day of the month). It is nearly impossible to report just a single account to the bureaus. Unless, however, this Friday happens to be their normal reporting period when they report all their accounts. I think he is just twisting your leg.

They just aren't supposed to. It's a contract that they signed, that they can't add a surcharge just for using a credit card. It's also against the Merchant Agreement rules for a business to require a minimum payment to use a credit card.
They told me that they were getting ready to turn "all the old debts" over to the bureaus on Friday, as if they were doing some kind of house cleaning or something. I put my husband on and he talked to them for a while - he's smarter than me and they finally twisted his leg too, but that may be because he was in a rush to get to work.
If you scroll down to the bottom at the mastercard report a violation page, it will tell you what they cannot do and charging a fee to use a credit card is one of them. What really irks me is that they told me about this fee AFTER I gave him the credit card number.
(http://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/contactus/merchantviolations.html)

By the way, what are these Debtcc Points?

Interesting, I always thought they could charge a fee as long as you agreed to it. I don't think this makes it against the law, though, just a breech of contract on their membership agreement with Mastercard.

Hopefully if you fill out the complaint form, Mastercard will be able to get your fee back for you.

The DebtCC points are worth a penny a piece. You get them by posting comments on this site. When you have at least 1000 points ($10), you can PM Mike and they will send you the money.

Well, if it's a legally binding contract, it would be illegal for them to charge a fee I'd think.

These Debtcc points sound really cool. Thanks for explaining them :) :o

I didn't realize such a charge was a violation. I never paid them because I am hesitant about giving out my banking information. That's just me though.

Yeah, if I were you, I'd report *any* business that tries to do that to you. It's especially crappy that this is the way they treat people who are trying to pay off old debt.
By the way, I was told on another forum that what I did (paying them the $) actually just made my credit score lower than if I had just let the debt go. What's esp. upsetting is that I found out it was literally 3 months from expiring due to Statute of Limiatations.